Camera Phone Pix of Gas Prices

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 18:40

June Gas Prices in the SF Bay Area This is a real camera phone picture sent to us yesterday by a friend of ZAP here in the San Francisco Bay Area. People are really hurting from rising gasoline prices. But if you are in the USA, consider yourself lucky. A gentleman from Ireland called last month inquiring about ZAP vehicles and reminded me that people in Europe are paying much more for gasoline relative to the United States. After we finished converting pounds to dollars and liters to gallons, I started understanding what he means. Below is a recent summary of the highest gas prices in the world and the USA is no where near the top: Highest Gas Prices Ranked by Country 1. Bosnia-Herzegovina $10.86 2. Eritrea $9.58 3. Norway $8.73 4. United Kingdom $8.38 5. Netherlands $8.37 6. Monaco $8.31 7. Iceland $8.28 8. Belgium $8.22 9. France $8.07 10. Germany $7.86 ... 111. United States $3.45 Why is this especially painful for the USA? Americans use three times more oil than Europeans. UK oil use has remained almost unchanged and France's dropped 17% since 1980 (EIA). Meanwhile, US oil use is up 21% over the same period. Cheap gas means bigger cars, and homes farther from work. Also contributing is the devaluation of the US dollar against other foreign currencies. Other countries do tax fuel use more than the USA, but unlike the US many of these countries mandate that gas taxes in part subsidize alternative transportation. This explains greater use of trains and buses in places like Europe. How much are gas prices where you live? Pull out your camera phone and ZAP a quick pic and we'll post it here. Feel free to email it to me, acampbell@zapworld.com, if you wish or to someone you may know at ZAP. Make sure to the send the location and date and even a credit if you wish. Thank you!

"Why is this especially

Submitted by Niralisherni (not verified) on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 02:37.

"Why is this especially painful for the USA? Americans use three times more oil than Europeans. UK oil use has remained almost unchanged and France's dropped 17% since 1980 (EIA). Meanwhile, US oil use is up 21% over the same period.Cheap gas means bigger cars, and homes farther from work. " Small wonder than that America is chafing at the price rise; people will just have to get used to it and try and kick their oil addiction. I read about this very interesting study that calculates the carbon footprint of citizens of different nations and the findings were that ”in the U.S. people with the lowest energy usage, a homeless person, a five-year-old and a Buddhist monk, all have a carbon footprint twice as large as the average global citizen. This is because the services provided for every American, including infrastructure and public services, guarantee set a baseline that no American can drop below. The carbon footprint of the low energy consumers were about one-third the American average. Americans are big foots when it comes to their carbon footprint. The world average is four tons; Americans on average consume 20 tons.” (from: http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1726/73/#jc)